Pitching With Confidence

I coach a 12-U (2000 age) team going into our 4th year. We learned fast (as 9-U) that several things are key to pitching success:

1. Location, location, location (as RAD said).

2. Great off-speed pitch (preferably a change up) that does NOT involve slowing the arm down or lobbing it up there. The FACT is, that you WILL also face the curve ball, and your guys will want to throw it, too. If they learn it, I hope you're the one calling it, only occasionally, and not the LL World Series end-all pitch we've all seen.

3. The ability to pitch inside. I don't mean the inside corner; I mean up under the hitter's hands in and off the plate. The HR's we've given up have mainly been on inside FB that got over the plate. Make that 17" plate 19-20".

4. A solid catcher that can block the low balls and frame the outside pitch. If you're 11-U AAU, then he'd better have no fear of using his arm--and a good one--to keep the base runners honest.

5. To quote former Yank Lefty Gomez, on the secret to his success, "Clean living and a fast outfield."

With our team, we did not experience a great deal of success until this past (our 3rd) year, until we finally got #5 taken care of in all 3 O.F. positions. In travel ball, you have to have the great gloves all-around, with 1B/P/DH being the only hide-a-defensive-liability-players (Great hit or pitch, no glove).

If you are looking to compete with players from 1 or 2 local rec leagues, you may want to re-think it and expand. If you've already done that, take a look at your team in terms of item #5. We found that we had a team of all-stars from 6 different leagues, and NONE of them had played outfield since they were the studs who always stayed in the infield. The tough sell was convincing the parents that we needed "little Johnny" to play RF because he could run it down and hose it to 3rd, as there was the stigma attatched to outfield from rec ball.

Sorry to get off your topic a little, but I think RAD can really back me up on the outfield being a real key. JT